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North to be redesigned- teachers out, new program in

As was reported by the North Denver News in October, North High School will face redesign for the 2007-2008 school year.

Redesign is process by which Denver Public Schools attempts to “dramatically turn around a school’s performance and culture to create a rigorous academic program and a strong and intentional school climate.” In doing so, essentially the school’s entire instructional staff is fired, although they can reapply for their jobs.

DPS has been under pressure to improve performance at North, including from politicians. With the closure of Manual High School last year to facilitate its redesign, some in the community believed that North might share that fate. But with the announcement that North will be redesigned comes a commitment that the school will remain open.

DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet has argued that redesign gives the school a fresh start and opportunity to introduce a new program that didn’t exist with the on-going reform plan. The new faculty is then committed to the new program and, in theory, a new school culture.
According to the district, since 2001, North has lost over 400 students, or nearly 25% of its enrollment, from 1,628 in 2001 to 1,224 in 2006.

This year’s decline was only six kids, but this includes 57 former Manual students who attend North this year. The situation for 9th graders is particularly acute. For example, the 9th grade cohort in 2002 diminished to 182 students in 2005.

In addition, North’s choice out rate has increased from 30.5% (567 students) in 2002 to nearly 45% (730 students) in 2006. This is all cause for serious concern, since enrollment declines led to a diminished academic offering at Manual and eventually to its closure. North had 733 9th graders in 2001-2002 and graduated only 206 students four years later in 2004-2005.

For North, student achievement has been an ongoing struggle. Just 17% of North students taking Advanced Placement tests for college credit succeeded, compared with 40% in the district as a whole. Few students tested as advanced in state-mandated CSAP testing; just fourteen 10th graders measured as proficient or advanced in Math in 2006; only 1 in 6 North students measured proficient or advanced in writing. North had shown real improvement in scores in recent years, but those gains weren’t determined to be sufficient.

For the first time in memory, the district put at least some of the responsibility for its woes squarely upon administrative shoulders. “The broad community has a strong sense that immediate action must be taken to differentiate this reform effort from previous community efforts in which the district failed to implement the recommendations. In an attempt to respond to this community demand, the District will present recommendations in January about the future configuration of North and other changes in Northwest Denver. It is clear that there is no hope for attracting significant numbers of students and families back to North without a dramatic redirection of the school.”

In somewhat vague terms, the district expects North to “anchor” an environment from Early Childhood Education through 12th grade. DPS also claims that “Parents and community will be genuinely welcomed into the school as partners. Internships with businesses will be developed and nurtured. The environment will be safe and centered on students, and the standards for teaching and learning will be rigorous with a ‘refusal to fail’ mindset.”

The district’s pronouncements about North’s future don’t address perhaps the key hurdle facing North — the fact that the great majority of North’s current incoming ninth graders aren’t at grade level. In fact, the district’s multi-page explanation of the North redesign doesn’t mention the term “middle school” once. And without meaningful progress on that count, redesign won’t be much more than window-dressing.***